Welcome to the Fracture Lair

Phone +64 9 300 6199. Fracture is a digital design agency based in a secret lair somewhere in Auckland, New Zealand.

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About Us

We are lovers, schemers, explorers and Kurt Russell fans, waging war against bad design and marching towards ultimate victory. Our clients are our allies. We love them - sometimes even physically - and revel in taking part in their success, toasting with fancy champagne, and crushing those who would seek to oppose them.

Online or offline, we use our design, technology and solid thinking to produce quantifiable results, for projects large or small. We work with amazing brands, exciting people and progressive agencies who inspire us. We also like working for power-hungry tycoons wanting to buy their way to the top.

If you'd like to know more about how Fracture can make you stand out, get in touch. We're always happy to chat about your ideas and how we can help you make them happen. If you are looking to prove a paternity case, you may have the wrong Fracture. We definitely ain't that baby's pappy.

Fracture Blog

Visit our Fracture Blog at blog.fracture.co.nz.

Work

Citta Design Website

When our Lair needed a little spruce up, we were fortunate to have Citta Design on hand to add a little je-ne-sais-quoi to our dusty parlours with their suits of armour, mounted endangered species heads and mouldy remains of those who have displeased us.

We thought it only chivalrous to return the favour with a beautiful, refined site to show off their beautiful, refined product ranges, online. We are now working on a surprise range for their next season called “Chic-tator”, a series of stern-faced busts of mustachioed megalomaniacs in a range of designer colours for the season. www.cittadesign.com

Jasmax Website

Jasmax came in to talk websites, but we had bigger ideas. We hit them with our idea about making their site an interactive spatial experience. "What the hell does that mean?" they asked. "We don't know yet, but it shall be rad" we answered. And just like that, from a field of 30 other bewildered firms, Fracture and our "virtual building" concept stole Jasmax's heart.

From there, we spent weeks researching Jasmax, including two intensive days spent at JX soaking in the brand and culture. We talked, listened, interpreted and learned, going on field trips with their top brass and interviewing their new recruits, digging dirt on everything from weather stations to worm farms. When we emerged, we were fully brainwashed Jasmaxonauts, seeing everything as 3D space and people as weird talking buildings.

We then created their spatial experience website - a celebration of their mantra of creative interrogation. And the feedback was exceptional: Jasmax loved the site, as did their market. We managed to double visits to the site, and saw the average time on the site shoot to a whopping 7 and a half minutes.

We were also honoured with several awards for the site, including the prestigious Best Business Website at the 2009 SXSW Interactive Awards. www.jasmax.com

Misery Website

Our friend Tans (aka Misery) is one of those smart, funny, beautiful, super talented people who by rights you should loathe and mistrust because she’s obviously some kind of genetically superior super being. Problem is, she’s so damn cool that instead of wanting to push her off a cliff and run laughing into the forest, you just want to hang out with her all day and draw pictures of monsters and make awesome cannibal costumes.

With Misery ready to launch her amazing art to the world, we created a full-on Misery World full of her cute characters and creatures, complete with an online shop and gallery, so her fanatical fans could go and immerse themselves and presumably live out some creepy fantasies.

Fortunately, we no strangers to creepiness or fantasies, so we felt right at home with this. We even created what we’re pretty sure is a world first, the world’s first Excreting Monster Shopping Cart. You’ll have to go buy something from the online shop to see it's full glory though ;)

The site has been highly praised, featuring on several awards sites and winning a 2008 BeST Award. www.misery.com

OBO Website

Intrigued by an amazing little company who had somehow turned Palmerston North into the hockey goalkeeping Mecca of the world, we made a pilgrimage to the mighty Good Shit Factory in Palmy to meet Simon Barnett and do some serious thinking.

With OBO confident that we "got it", the brief was simple: "Go do something amazing". And with a brief like that, there's really only two ways it can go: it’s either going to be a train wreck, or it's going to blow a whole lot of people's skirts up.

And this one turned out to be a bonafide skirt blower, and a testament to a truly inspirational company, a pragmatic process, and their trust in our ability to take their amazing brand to the next level.

In the quarter we released the site, OBO saw sales increase by 18%. For a company operating in a niche market they already dominate and whose sales rarely shift by more than a percent or two, this was huge.

The site also picked up a Gold Medal at the 2007 BeST Awards, with the judges commenting: "Hard Out. The OBO brand experience was reinforced powerfully online. The designer really got into the headspace of the target." www.obo.co.nz

Vonu Pure Lager Identity

We created this distinctive, island-inspired identity for Vonu, a fresh new pure lager from Fiji. The identity includes branding, packaging, mechandise and a website.

We also have an intensive research trip planned for later in the year, where we attempt to get into the mindset of the market by flying to Fiji, sitting around at swanky resorts in Speedos and drinking gallons of free beer whilst hitting on hot tourists.

Vonu PopUp Book

The Vonu boys wanted a stand-out promo piece for their brand new Vonu pure lager, launching into Fijian resorts. We proposed the idea of an elaborate pop-up book, telling the (relatively recent) Fijian legend of the time European settlers came to Fiji and stole their fantastic, happiness-inducing Vonu pure lager.

The popup book was an amazing project, with some serious Fracture creative pythons being flexed. We produced all parts of the process, coming up with the story, storyboarding, finished artwork and paper-engineering for the book construction, all the way through to the final product.

The book has already recieved strong praise with our test audience, and with the release of the beer scheduled for mid 2009 we're expecting the book to be a huge hit.

Island Brewing Co. Identity

We came up with a load of fun ideas for the Identity for the Island Brewing Co, but this one really stood out the most.

Each card has a Hawaiian shirt design unique to the owner, playing on the laid-back island setting of the business.

Bula

Fearon Hay Website

If you haven't heard of Fearon Hay Architects by now, you've probably been living under a rock.

Fortunately for you, if rocks are your thing they can design you a sublimely minimal living solution Rock with indoor outdoor flow and slidey rock doors.

The Fearon Hay site is a restrained little beauty that still looks like it was designed yesterday, and pint-sized though it is, it's still a real crowd pleaser and still gets us a huge number of calls.

We asked Jeff and Tim what they think of our Lair design, 'cause they’re probably pretty scared right now that we might just go fulltime into architecture.

Haven’t heard back yet. Yep. Bet they're shitting themselves. www.fearonhay.com

Charlies Website

Fracture: "Do you reckon Stefan will mind if we put him in a pimp suit, with gold teeth and a crappy platinum money chain? You know, cos he's like The Juice Pimp?"

Charlie's Marketing: "(long pause)… Nah, don't reckon he'll mind."

One of the best loved Kiwi brands, we knew we’d have to come up with the creative goods to impress Stefan and Marc in our pitch. Fortunately when we pulled out a whole book full of juicy ideas including pirates, pimps, covers bands and Richard Pryor, they didn't need much more convincing.

Since the initial launch, we’ve engaged in a constant program of upgrades and refinements to keep the site fresh for their legions of juice loving fruit bangers. We've had a great time, entertaining and occasionally offending the old naysayer by pushing the cheekiness factor as far as we could, to create an organic juice monster that's squeezed all their competition out of the picture. charlies.co.nz

Omnigraphics Website

A great example of a corporate site tuned up with a little Fracture magic. We created the architecture of the site in a deliberate order, educating the user progressively, with each section drilling down into further detail.

On every website, we try to highlight at least one process or facet that we find unique and interesting. For Omnigraphics, we followed a billboard project right through their process from initial client meeting to the final installation, making a stop-motion feature out of the journey.

The site has been very successful for them, with increased traffic volumes and a good policy of upgrades resulting in a comprehensive, functional marketing tool for the company. www.omnigraphics.co.nz

Weber Consulting Website

We were instantly impressed by Weber's cutting edge, structure-driven architectural style, and were keen to produce a site for them that would engender their professionalism, but also showcase the innovation that was at the creative heart of the company.

In our first meeting we discussed how even the most brilliant designs always start with a single line, and we decided to feature this "flowing line" motif throughout the site, linking the sections together and introducing each design.

The site was so well recieved by Weber that they contracted us to handle their graphic design needs as well, producing printed collateral including marketing brochure and all corporate stationery. www.weberconsulting.co.nz

MINI Cabrio

We were approached by MINI BMW in Berlin to produce a promo movie for the Cabrio’s release in New Zealand. The only catch - there was no Cabrios in New Zealand yet, so we had to show off a car that wasn't there.

We improvised, cropping in promo shots of the car with a cutdown from over 10,000 digital stills we had shot with our actors, including cameos from Jimmy as the VIP and Hargy as the salty old sea-dog.

From there it was two sleepless weeks in high gear, editing it all together into a finely-tuned polished little production.

The movie was a great success, being distributed via MINI’s official magazine to thousands of subscribers around the world. Our MINI Cabrio movie is still a fond Fracture favourite.

Conversa Global

We thought market research leaders Conversa Global might prefer to play it safe with a subdued corporate website, but we were wrong!

They asked us to come up with a funny way of showing how the Conversa method of market research was far superior to the traditional approach.

We figured the best way to show this in an animated comic strip adventure, following the hapless Tim (played by our hapless junior designer Tim), as he seeks advice from his two uncles on bagging a date with his dream girl, Anna (played by our dream girl, Anna).

We storyboarded, cast and shot the two stories of Tim, employing a mix of professional seedy actors, Fracture staff and even girlfriends in the lead roles. The result was one of our most unique, hilarious efforts yet, and a true personal favourite of the portfolio.

The site got a lot of attention, and was obviously so amazing that Conversa Global were bought out by global whopper TNS soon after. The site lives on Fracture history books. www.fracture.co.nz/conversa

Workshop

www.workshop.co.nz